Ex-state lawmaker Mellow gets 16 months in prison

November 30, 2012News Extra

SCRANTON, Pa. — A federal judge today sentenced former Democratic lawmaker Robert Mellow to 16 months in prison and ordered him to pay nearly $80,000 in restitution to the state Senate, along with a $40,000 fine to the federal government.

Judge Joel Slomsky also ordered Mellow, long one of the most powerful figures in state government, to have supervised release after his prison sentence.

Mellow, whose portrait hangs in the state Capitol, was charged with using his own Senate staff and staffers for other Democratic senators to run political campaigns in violation of state law.

Slomsky called the case a “tragedy” because Mellow had spent 40 years as an effective public servant and was a devoted friend and father.